Cafe.con.Leche

SDR

Seeking Autonomy in Sales

I've had jobs where I get paid hourly, my first job was dishwashing for minimum wage. When I then worked as a server for the 1st time I was HOOKED. At times I made more in a weekend than 2 weeks of full time work. I stopped working full time, and worked 3 days a week making way more as a server and then bartender.

I got into SaaS sales as an SDR two years ago, and have gotten promoted to a senior SDR role and am eligible to interview for an AE role.

However, although this is a sales role and commission allows me to make more I do not feel the autonomy I thought I would. I'm not expecting to work 3 days a week or 3 hours a day, but I pursued remote SaaS sales work to have flexibility in my day to day and now more than ever my role feels like an unsustainable never ending grind.

Is there such a thing as flexibility and autonomy in sales? Specifically SaaS sales, is an AE role truly more flexible than an SDR role? Some peers frame the job of an AE as being a lot less of a grind which sounds weird to me, is there truth to that? Is it possible depending on the org? Are my expectations skewed? I'd love to know your insights fellow savages.

🤘 Personal Growth

🏄 Personal Life

3

8 comments

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Sunbunny31

Politicker

4

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

There is, depending largely on your role and who you work for. I do get to set my hours as I see fit, it’s not a 9-5 every day. I have a great deal of autonomy within my schedule. However, understand that’s after years of experience and the fact that I’m a Sr Enterprise Sales Executive, who works remotely. Some days, I really work about 5 hours, but other days, I’m putting in 10-12, depending on what’s going on. I have flexibility, but I also have responsibility. I’ve earned the trust of my employer and the expectation that I’ll do what’s necessary to win business.

All that said, employers have expectations. I have a base salary. For that, I’m expected to take care of business, even the parts I don’t enjoy, and be available for my company. I’m expected to outbound, manage my accounts, and keep the CRM completely up to date. Companies are literally paying for your time, and you can’t just decide not to work.

The flip side to that is that efforts pay off. The more you work, the better you’ll do in quota attainment and comp. Hard work provides results. You can’t expect lack of putting in time to provide a consistently good result, so if the underlying question is can you work short hours and skip days - probably. You may do ok. But I’ll guarantee you won’t be as successful as your counterparts who are working more effectively. And you may get a reputation that will keep you from promotions.

All that said, the ability for AEs to set hours and manage schedules is very possible, but it involves the trust of your employer. Sometimes that comes with experience - if you’ve been around a while, they may trust you out of the gate. The other caution is that sometimes you’re given enough rope to hang yourself, as the saying goes. You get the autonomy but don’t produce - bye.

jefe

Arsonist

4

🍁

All. Of. This.

Also, in terms of AE being 'less of a grind'. There's more pressure, but you're not managed against KPIs the same way, or shouldn't be. It's not just busting out 100 dials a day and setting some meetings. There's A LOT less that's in your control. You lose deals by no fault of your own. People ghost.

It's different.

oldcloser

Arsonist

3

💀

There is absolutely nothing to add to this. 100% spot on.

Cafe.con.Leche

Executive

2

SDR

Thanks for that, the key thing I am looking for is balance for sure. I think it’s easy to get caught up in feeling it’s a rat race and maybe the org I’m in does its fair share of promoting that environment, but I’ll keep at it. working towards a balance

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

We all have days where we don’t love the job or a request from management, or a new launch/plan - but work through those. It does ease up the longer you do it. And using those sales muscles frequently will make most of your motions reflexive and easier.

And … servers make great sales reps.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

2

🦊

Yes it exists. Mainly after you've proven yourself and gained trust and respect.

Cafe.con.Leche

Executive

0

SDR

I’m all for that, I’m glad to get confirmation from people 1st hand!

BigShrimpin

Catalyst

0

Account executive

the most autonomy will always come from commission only roles as you only get paid if you do good work so they couldn't care less what you do since it costs them nothing (unless they provide leads)
as sunbunny said being an enterprise ae there isnt always a full 8 hours of work everyday and (good) managers will understand this and not burden you with nonsense but this also comes with very heavy 10+ hour days when everything floods in at once

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